Houston Texans Turn Back to QB Davis Mills

On Wednesday, head coach Love Smith announced that the Houston Texans would be moving back to Davis Mills from Kyle Allen following Week 13's 27-14 loss to the Cleveland Browns. With a difficult matchup against the Dallas Cowboys coming up in Week 14, let's dig into what that means for Mills' fantasy football implications as well as the players he will be throwing to.

Davis Mills for Sunday's Game and Beyond

Davis Mills started the first ten games of the Texans' 2022 season, chalking up one win and one tie before eventually hitting the bench after the 23-10 loss to the Washington Commanders in Week 11. The team never eclipsed 300 yards passing over those ten starts, and ranked 26th in the league in passing yards per game, despite almost exclusively playing from behind. Mills' stats before being benched told the story of someone who needed someone else to step in, completing 61.9% of his passing attempts for 2,144 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.

Enter Kyle Allen, who had two weeks to prove that he could draw up a better performance at QB. What coach Lovie Smith got instead was a career journeyman backup who mustered a completion percentage of 57.5% while throwing four picks in his brief stint as a starter. While Mills was terrible for fantasy through the first 11 weeks of the year (QB32, 11.6 fantasy points per game), Allen was somehow even worse, scoring 15.9 points combined in Houston's games against the Dolphins and Browns. For context, 17 different quarterbacks scored that many fantasy points in Week 12 alone.

So we head back to the former Stanford quarterback and 2021 third-round draft pick, just in time to take on a Dallas Cowboys team that ranks second in the league in schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to the position.

Texans Other Fantasy Options After the Change

It would be difficult to stick any of the Texans' skill position players into your starting lineup, as this offense is still likely the worst in the NFL. The best course of action in real life and in fantasy is to just stick with the rushing game and make your best impression of the Tennessee Titans. Dameon Pierce had a great bounceback game in Week 13, attributing for 33% of the team's total yards against Cleveland, and the team may stick with the run game as much as possible, if for no other reason than to shorten the game and get out of Dallas without embarrassing themselves.

With no tight ends who consistently contribute and the weekly drama that is Brandin Cooks' willingness to suit up, the only other option you can even consider with Davis Mills back at the helm is Nico Collins, who could only scratch his way to 79 yards on 19 targets with Kyle Allen throwing him the ball. Allen only targeted the wide receiver position on 43.8% of his throws during his run as a starter, the fourth-lowest mark over those two weeks, while Mills targets WRs at a 52.4% clip, so at the very least, he should be able to maintain Collins' target share.

We can safely write off the Houston Texans for the remainder of the 2022 season, keeping Dameon Pierce around as an RB2 and Nico Collins as a WR3.